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UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA

GENDER, PASSAGE CONTENT AND TEXT TYPES IN READING COMPREHENSION AMONG

ESL LEARNERS

FUNG PAU LING

T FBMK 2008 19

GENDER, PASSAGE CONTENT AND TEXT TYPES IN

READING COMPREHENSION AMONG ESL LEARNERS

FUNG PAU LING

MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA

AUGUST 2008

GENDER, PASSAGE CONTENT AND TEXT TYPES IN READING COMPREHENSION AMONG

ESL LEARNERS

By

FUNG PAU LING

Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies Universiti Putra Malaysia in Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts

AUGUST 2008

DEDICATION

To my beloved father, mother and

my siblings

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Abstract of thesis presented to the Senate of Universiti Putra Malaysia in fulfilment of the requirement for the Degree of Masters of Arts

GENDER, PASSAGE CONTENT AND TEXT TYPE IN READING

COMPREHENSION AMONG ESL LEARNERS

By

FUNG PAU LING

November 2007

Chairman: Associate Professor Shameem Rafik-Galea, PhD Faculty: Modern Languages and Communication This study examined the comprehension performance among ESL learners. The

aim was to examine whether gender, passage content and text types affect

reading comprehension of upper secondary school students in Malaysia. The

study also investigated gender differences of students’ reading habits. Their

favourite reading topics, reading materials and reading comprehension

performances (in terms of passage content and text types) were also explored in

relation to gender. The samples comprised 162 Upper Six students. Four

reading passages of different contents and text types – female-oriented narrative

text, male-oriented narrative text, female-expository narrative text and male-

expository text, were used. They completed reading comprehension tasks

(written recall tasks and multiple-choice questions) after reading each of the

passages. Both reading comprehension tasks were analyzed to investigate if

there were gender differences in reading comprehension performance with

respect to passage content and text types. The written recall tasks were also

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analyzed in order to seek if there were gender differences in terms of quantity of

ideas and types of ideas recalled. The respondents were also asked to complete

a questionnaire.

The study revealed gender differences in reading habits, favourite reading

topics and reading comprehension scores, especially in the written recall tasks.

The Chi-square statistics found that reading topics were gender-oriented,

whereby certain topics preferred by males and certain topics were mostly

chosen by females. Furthermore, there were significant differences in reading

comprehension test scores in all the reading passages except for the male-

oriented narrative text. There were also significant differences in reading

comprehension performance in relation to passage content. However, there was

no significant difference in reading comprehension scores in text types.

The findings of this study suggested that educators need to select reading

materials that are appropriate to both gender groups in terms of passage content

to enhance their students’ reading comprehension performance. In addition, the

reading comprehension passages used to evaluate students’ reading skills

should be of different contents to avoid gender bias. The types of reading

materials chose by the respondents also revealed that they prefer reading

authentic materials. Therefore, educators should use authentic materials in the

teaching and learning process in classrooms.

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Abstrak tesis yang dikemukakan kepada Senat Universiti Putra Malaysia sebagai memenuhi keperluan untuk ijazah Master Sastera

JANTINA, KANDUNGAN PETIKAN DAN JENIS TEKS DALAM

KEFAHAMAN MEMBACA DI ANTARA PELAJAR-PELAJAR BELAJAR BAHASA INGGERIS SEBAGAI BAHASA KEDUA

By

FUNG PAU LING

November 2007

Pengerusi: Profesor Madya Shameem Rafik-Galea, PhD Fakulti: Bahasa Moden dan Komunikasi Kajian ini dijalankan untuk menyelidik tentang pencapaian kefahaman

membaca di antara pelajar-pelajar yang belajar Bahasa Inggeris sebagai bahasa

kedua. Tujuan kajian ini adalah meneliti sama ada jantina, kandungan petikan

dan jenis teks mempengaruhi kefahaman membaca para pelajar menengah atas

di Malaysia. Kajian ini juga menyelidik sama ada sikap membaca di kalangan

pelajar berbeza dari segi jantina. Kesukaan kandugan petikan, jenis bahan

bacaan dan pencapaian kefahaman membaca juga dikaji dari aspek jantina.

Para responden yang terlibat di dalam kajian ini adalah terdiri daripada 162

pelajar Tingkatan Enam Atas. Empat petikan digunakan dalam kajian ini.

Mereka dikehendaki melakukan written recall task dan menjawab soalan aneka

pilihan setelah membaca setiap empat petikan. Keempat-empat petikan adalah

berbeza dari segi kandungan dan jenis texts – female-oriented narrative text, male-

oriented narrative text, female-expository narrative text and male-expository text.

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Written recall task dan soalan aneka pilihan dianalisa untuk menyelidik sama

ada kefahaman membaca dipengaruhi oleh kandungan petikan dan jenis teks.

Written recall task juga di analisa untuk menentukan sama ada quantiti dan jenis

idea yang ditulis oleh pelajar adalah berbeza dari segi jantina. Akhirnya, para

responden juga dikehendaki menjawab satu soal-selidik.

Dapatan kajian ini menunjukkan terdapat perbezaan dari aspek jantian dalam

sikap membaca, kesukaan tajuk bacaan dan markah kefahaman membaca,

terutamanya dalam written recall tasks. Chi-square Statistik juga menunjukkan

perbezaan dari segi pemilihan tajuk bacaan yang diminati oleh jantina yang

berbeza. Di samping itu, didapati bahawa terdapat perbezaan pencapaian

kefahaman membaca dalam semua petikan, kecuali male-oriented narrative.

Perbezaan markah juga didapati dalam kandungan petikan yang berbeza.

Walau bagaimanapun, didapati tiada perbezaan yang ketara dalam pencapaian

kefahaman membaca dari segi jenis teks.

Dapatan kajian ini mencadangkan agar para pendidik memilih bahan bacaan

yang sesuai untuk kedua-dua jantina dari segi kandungan petikan dan jenis teks

untuk mencapai kefahaman bacaan yang maksimum. Kandungan petikan yang

digunakan untuk ujian / peperiksaan mestilah sesuai untuk kedua-dua jantina.

Para pendidik juga boleh menggunakan bahan autentik dalam proses

pengajaran dan pembelajaran berdasarkan dapatan kajian ini.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the course of obtaining this degree, the following people have helped and

supported me in various ways. I could not have reached my goal without them.

Therefore, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to this extraordinary

group of people who have kindly rendered me their assistance in one way or

another in writing this thesis:

My parents, brothers, sisters and all my family members, who have cheered me on and loved me unconditionally. Assoc. Prof. Dr Shameem Rafik-Galea and Prof. Dr. Chan Swee Heng, my supervisory committee. Thank you for your guidance and advice. Dr Bahaman, Dr Jusang and Benjamin, thank you for your guidance, especially with my statistical analysis. Zuhana, Adilah and Puti, who marched along beside me, together we went through all the ups and downs. Lay Tying, a computer wizard, who supported and helped me with my tables and figures whenever I had difficulties in handling them. Ngi Seng, Kuan Heong, Foong Yoong, Pau Pin and all my formal colleagues from SMK St. Patrick, Tawau, who supported and motivated me.

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I certify that a Thesis Examination Committee has met on 08 August 2008 to conduct the final examination of Fung Pau Ling on her thesis entitled “Gender, Passage Content and Text Type among ESL Learners” in accordance with the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 and the Constitutuion of the Universiti Putra Malaysia [P.U.(A) 106] 15 March 1998. The Committee recommends that the student be awarded the Master of Arts. Members for the Thesis Examination Committee were as follows: Shamala a/p Paramasivam, PhD Jabatan Bahasa Inggeris Fakulti Bahasa Moden dan Komunikasi Universiti Putra Malaysia (Chairperson) Wong Bee Eng, PhD Prof. Madya Jabatan Bahasa Inggeris Fakulti Bahasa Moden dan Komunikasi Universiti Putra Malaysia (Internal Examiner) Vijay Kumar Mallan, PhD Jabatan Bahasa Inggeris Fakulti Bahasa Moden dan Komunikasi Universiti Putra Malaysia (Internal Examiner) Khoo Yew Lie, PhD Prof. Madya Program Pengajian Bahasa Inggeris Pusat Pengajian Bahasa dan Linguistik Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (External Examiner) __________________________________ HASANAH MOHD. GHAZALI, PhD Professor and Dean School of Graduate Studies Universiti Putra Malaysia Date: 30 December 2008

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The thesis submitted to the Senate of Universiti Putra Malaysia and has been accepted as fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. The members of the Supervisory Committee were as follows: Shameem Rafik-Galea, PhD Associate Professor Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication Universiti Putra Malaysia (Chairman) Chan Swee Heng, PhD Professor Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication Universiti Putra Malaysia (Member) __________________________________ HASANAH MOHD. GHAZALI, PhD Professor and Dean School of Graduate Studies Universiti Putra Malaysia Date: 15 January 2009

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DECLARATION

I declare that the thesis is based on my original work except for quotations and citations which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently submitted for any other degree at UPM or at any other institutions. ________________ FUNG PAU LING Date: 14 November 2008

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page DEDICATION ii ABSTRACT iii ABSTRAK v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii APPROVAL viii DECLARATION x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xiv

LIST OF TABLES xv LIST OF FIGURES xvii CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1 1.2 Statement of the problem 6 1.3 Aims and objectives 11 1.4 Research questions 12 1.5 Significance of the study 12 1.6 Scope and limitations of the study 14 1.7 Definition of the key terms 14 1.8 Organization of the thesis 16 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical perspectives 18 2.1.1 Bottom-up model 19 2.1.2 Top-down model 20 2.1.3 Interactive model 22 2.1.4 Mathewson’s (1984) affective model 24 2.1.5 Schema theory 25 2.1.6 Integration of Schema Theory and Matthewson’s Affective Model 34 2.2 Reading 36 2.3 Reading comprehension 38 2.4 Reading and gender 40

2.4.1 Gender and Second Language Research 46 2.5 Reading and Schemata 48

2.5.1 Previous research on content schemata 51 2.5.2 Previous research on formal schemata 55

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2.6 Passage content 57 2.6.1 Gender-oriented topics 58

2.7 Text types 59 2.7.1 Narrative texts 61 2.7.2 Expository texts 62

2.8 Related local studies 64 2.9 Chapter Summary 69

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction 71 3.2 Research Design 71 3.3 Sampling Design 72

3.3.1 Subjects of the study 72 3.3.2 Sampling Procedures 73

3.4. Instrument 76 3.4.1 Reading passages 76 3.4.2. Questionnaires 80 3.4.3 Task types 81 3.4.3.1 Written recall protocol 82 3.4.3.2 Multiple-choice Questions 82

3.5 Pilot Study 87 3.6 Data collection methods 89 3.7 Data analysis procedures 94

3.7.1 Written recall task 95 3.7.2 Multiple-choice questions 99 3.7.3 Data Coding 99 3.7.4 Data Transformation and Data Analysis 101

3.8 Chapter Summary 104 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Profile of the respondents 105 4.2Findings by Research Questions 107

4.2.1 Reading habits of males and females 107 4.2.2 Gender and reading topics 112 4.2.3 Familiarity with different reading texts 121 4.2.4 Topic Interest of different reading texts 131 4.2.5 Gender difference in gender-oriented passages 139 4.2.6 Gender difference in text types 141

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4.2.7 Written Recall Task and Multiple-choice Questions 142 4.2.8 Types of ideas recalled 145

4.3 Chapter Summary 150

5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Introduction 151

5.2 Summary 151 5.2.1 Summary of the Results 153

5.3 Conclusions 160 5.4 Implications of the Study 164 5.5 Recommendations for Future Studies 170

REFERENCES 173 APPENDICES 209 BIODATA OF THE STUDENT 236

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviation Page 1 ERAS (The Elementary Reading Attitude Survey) 42 2 IEA (The International Association for the Evaluation

of Educational Achievement) 37 3 MASTIC (Malaysian Science and Technology Information Centre) 8

4 MUET (Malaysian University English Test) 5

5 NILAM (Nadi Ilmu Amalan Membaca) 2

6 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) 57

7 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 37

8 PMR (Penilaian Menengah Rendah) 5

9 SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) 5

10 TAL (Test of Academic Lexicon) 46

11 TOEFL (Teaching of English to Foreign Learners) 36

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LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Distribution of Form Six students 74 2 Characteristics of the reading passages 76 3 Flesch’s reading ease scores 78 4 Reading readability of the narrative texts 78 5 Reading readability of the expository texts 79 6 Cognitive levels of the multiple choice questions 86 7 Number of responses received and selected for the study 95 8 Number and Scores of the Idea Units for the Reading Passages 98 9 Age and Mother Tongue by Gender 106 10 SPM English results by gender 107 11 Reading interest and reading habits by gender 108 12 Chi-square analaysis of selected favourite reading topics among males and females 114 13 Favourite reading topics by gender 116 14 Topic preferences of the male and female respondents 117 15 Comparison of findings for the reading topics and passage content 120 16 Mean scores (M) and standard deviations (SD) for degree of topic familiarity by gender 123 17 Frequency for degree of familiarity with female-oriented narrative by gender 125

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18 Frequency for degree of familiarity of male-oriented narrative by gender 126

19 Frequency for degree of familiarity of female-oriented expository by gender 128 20 Frequency for degree familiarity of male-oriented expository

by gender 129 21 Mean scores (M) and standard deviations (SD) for degree of

topic interest by gender 132 22 Frequency for degree of female-oriented narrative topic interest

by gender 133 23 Frequency for degree of male-oriented narrative topic interest

by gender 135 24 Frequency for degree of female-oriented expository topic interest

by gender 137 25 Frequency for degree of male-oriented expository topic interest

by gender 138 26 Independent t-test summary statistics for reading comprehension 140 27 Independent t-test summary statistics for performance of

gender-oriented passages by gender 141 28 Independent t-test summary statistics for performance of

different text types by gender 142 29 Independent t-test summary statistics for the reading

comprehension tasks by gender 143 30 Independent t-test summary statistics for the scores of idea units

recalled by gender 146

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Bottom-up model 20 2 Top-down model 21 3 Mathewson’s Affective model of reading 24

4 Flow chart representing how schemata are thought to operate 34

5 Theoretical framework of the study 35 6 The conceptual model of the study 36

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents a discussion of the background to the study, problem

statement, research objectives, research questions, purpose statement,

significancet of the study and the definitions of key terms. It sets the

parameters for the findings by stating the scope and limitations of the study.

1.1 Background of the study

Reading is not a habit amongof most Malaysians. Based on a National

Literacy Survey carried out in 1996 by the National Library of Malaysia,

Malaysians read only two books a year (Reading Profiles of Malaysians 1996,

1998). . Besides, iIt was further also reported that the proportion of

Malaysians who can read well in the English language is relatively low

compared to reading in the national language, Bahasa Malaysia, and other

vernacular languages such as MandarinChinese and Tamil. Hence, reading

in the English language (second language) is less not a favourable among

choice for most Malaysians.

The prominence of the English language cannot be sidelined in this era of

globalization and information technology. It is the language of global

communication. English as a second language has been taught in all primary

and secondary schools in Malaysia. It is a compulsory subject in the

curricula. However, the English language is seen as a difficult subject by

Comment [U1]: You need to reference this.

Formatted: Font color: Auto

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most Malaysian students. Pandian (2000) reported that 80.1% out of 674

university students and 76.2% out of 975 Form Four students in Malaysian

public government schools students were reluctant to read materials in

English. He points out that Malaysian students read in order to complete

academic tasks but not for knowledge or pleasure. In addition, Lee (2004)

laments that students do not use have been using the English language for

the purpose of daily not to communicatione in their daily activities but for

the purpose of to take their examinations. Due to a lack of interest in

reading among Malaysian students, the government has tried to overcome

this problem by instituting several measures. For example, NILAM (Nadi

Ilmu Amalan Membaca) or the Sapphire programme for both the primary

and secondary levels was introduced in 1998 in order to inculcate good

reading habits amongin the primary and secondary school students; and the

literature components for the secondary level were introduced in 2000, with

the hope of promoting the reading skill among students. As Cunningham

and Stanovich (2003) point out that that reading volume is an independent

variable that would determine the acquisition of vocabulary and knowledge

of an individual. “reading volume is a very powerful predictor of

vocabulary and knowledge differences… it is actually a potentially separable,

independent source of cognitive differences.” Since reading is part of

academic literacy, students are expected to possess an ability to cope with the

demands of reading in English particularly now with due to the demands of

Comment [U2]: This is a direct quote. You need to include the page number too.

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globalization and developments in exposure to the information age

environment.

Reading, a complex cognitive process, is one of the essential four skills in

language acquisition. It is not a passive activity, which is merely decoding

printed materials or deriving meanings from written text. Its process is

complicated as it involves cognition, and many other factors interact to

facilitate or impede the comprehension of texts. Numerous research has

been done to study and describe the reading process, especially involving

reading comprehension because “without reading comprehension, there

would be no reading” (Rubin, 1993, p.194).

RAND Reading Study Group (2002) lists three elements involved in reading,

which are the reader, the text and the activity of reading. According to

Alderson (2000), it has been a common practice for researchers who study

factors affecting reading to divide the variables into two important groups,

which are reader variables and text variables. In the nineteen century, it was

believed that meaning resided in texts and readers played a passive role in

extracting meaning from texts. However, this traditional view changed to

that of an interactive view in the late 1970s which places more emphasis on

readers as active participants who derive and construct meaning from texts

based on their background knowledge. Hence, a text might be interpreted

differently by different readers as they have dissimilar experiences and

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background knowledge because meaning does not reside in the different

components of language (Spiro, 1980). Leahey and Harries (1993) suggest

that the term “interactionist” could be used when different individuals

construct and interpret different meanings from the same stimulus. It is

through interaction between reader and text that meanings are made. RAND

Reading Study Group (2002) listed knowledge and experiences as other

factors that can be categorized as background knowledge of readers.

Schema theory has been used extensively to describe the relationship

between background knowledge of the readers and reading comprehension.

One fundamental assumption of schema theory is that a text does not carry

meaning but it provides directions for readers to retrieve stored knowledge

in their long term memory to construct meaning (Adams and Collins, 1979).

Prior knowledge, background knowledge and schemata are often used

interchangeably in second language research (Carrell, 1985, Carrell and

Eisterhold, 19838). According to Kalai (2004), prior knowledge and

background knowledge are “… parent terms for many more specific

knowledge dimensions such as conceptual knowledge and metacognitive

knowledge, subject matter knowledge, content knowledge, strategy

knowledge, personal knowledge and self-knowledge are all specialized

forms of prior knowledge or background knowledge” (p. 24). Alderson

(2000) contends that background knowledge includes content, subject matter,

world knowledge and cultural knowledge. Researchers such as Baldwin et

Comment [U3]: What do you mean by the different component of language?

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al. (1985), Leahey and Harries (1993), and Sasaki (2000) strongly support the

notion strongly that prior knowledge had a significant effect on reading

comprehension. This is because prior knowledge serves as a frame which

enables interpretation of meaning. Chandler (1995) suggests that prior

knowledge, which is stored in the form of schemata would “lead us so

strongly to see only what we expect to see (or what we feel we ought to be

seeing) that we do not see what is actually there” (p.15). He also stresses that

gender is a key factor to determine how texts are interpreted. Furthermore,

Bboth males and females have different attitudes towards reading in terms of

reading habits and reading interest (McKenna and Kear, 1990; McKenna,

Kear and Ellsworth, 1995; Maynard, 2002). Therefore, ‘reader’ is an

important nonlinguistic factor which could affect the reading comprehension

performance.

The importance of reading is reflected in reading comprehension tested in all

the public examinations in Malaysia. A study on public examination papers

in Malaysia from 2005 to 2007 was carried out by the author. The analysis

showed that in the secondary three examination, Penilaian Menengah

Rendah (PRMR), the students were tested with two reading passages written

in discourse structures such as narrative and expository. Similarly, all the

Form five students were tested on reading comprehension in the Secondary

Five exit examination, Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). The students are

required to complete 10 questions which consist of limited structured

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response and open response items before writing a summary of a reading

passage. Likewise, the weightage given to reading comprehension in the

Malaysian University English Test (MUET) is 45% of the total marks.

Therefore, reading comprehension is a crucial test component to assess the

language proficiency and understanding of students in Malaysian schools

and higher institutions of higher learning.